Birmingham: The Creative City premiÃ¨res

The premiÃ¨re of the short film ‘Birmingham: The Creative City’ will be held at the Electric Cinema tomorrow afternoon.

From the Press Release:

Birmingham City Council Creative Development Team and Audiences Central are premiering a short film directed by BAFTA Award Winning Director Natasha Carlish on Tuesday 11 March at The Electric Cinema, Birmingham. Birmingham: The Creative City celebrates some of the personal stories and amazing work delivered as part of the Equal II: The Last Mile programme in Birmingham over the last two years.

The Equal II: The Last Mile programme was established to develop the Creative Industries as a route to employment in Birmingham. This creative business support project was established in 2005 to develop the creative industries as a route to employment for creative talent and arts professionals in Birmingham.

Co-ordinated by Birmingham City Councilâ€™s Creative Development Team and funded by the European Social Fund, the Equal II: The Last Mile programme has engaged over 400 individual artists and creative businesses and 18 partner organisations across Birmingham. The programme, and the creative industries, have made a significant contribution to Birminghamâ€™s economy through employment and improved quality of life.

The film, Birmingham: The Creative City is testimony itself to the wealth of creative talent within the region directed by one of the regionâ€™s BAFTA award winning directors, Natasha Carlish and Dreamfinder Productions and created with partners including John Mostyn who worked with music for film debutant Bass Flo, Quench Design who titled the films DVD menu and cover artwork and Supercool Design who worked on brand and design elements.

Director Natasha Carlish said: â€œNurturing and developing new creative talent in our city is something I feel extremely passionate about. So to be asked to create a film to illustrate just one area of work that is focusing on this very important issue was a real privilege. I was really inspired by the contributors to the film, their determination to success and their stories and I was really lucky to work with some great collaborators such as Endboad, Quench, John Mostyn and Bassfloâ€™, the Audiosuite, Aquila Film and Television and Shefali Oza.â€

Talking about the impact of the Equal II: The Last mile programme overall, Paul Cantrill, Head of Creative Development at Birmingham City Council said: â€œThe creative industries are one of the key sectors of growth and expansion in the region. In partnership with 18 organisations across Birmingham, the Equal II: The Last Mile programme has created many opportunities to enrich and support the wide diversity of talent located in this unique city.â€

To find out more about the amazing journeys that the beneficiaries and partners have undertaken as part of Equal II: The Last Mile visit www.creativecompass.co.uk.

One Comment

The programme basically helped under-represented people into the creative careers they’d perhaps dreamed of but never had either the confidence or business knowledge to make a real go of. The scheme gave them that boost, business-training and work experience to turn a part-time passion into a full-time career.

Giovanni, aka Spoz, was at the screening today. He joined the scheme after being made redundant from his job as a chassis engineer at MG Rover. Towards the end of the programme he applied for – and was awarded – the position of Birmingham Poet Laureate 2006-7. Of course he read a poem for us – full-on audience shout-back and everything, it was about dads who do disco dancing …!

There’s a brochure about the programme going into the Birmingham Post over the next week or two I think, which’ll have a bit more background to the whole project.

Nick of Podnosh was at the screening today and I’m sure he’ll have a much more interesting take on things than I, so keep an ear out for that …